It was quite a day in Davos.
Donald Trump began his time at the World Economic Forum Wednesday with a rambling, racism-drenched speech in which he attacked European leaders and reasserted his demand to acquire Greenland. But hours later, the US president backed down and eased off his threats to impose tariffs on several allied nations, claiming he had reached “the framework of a future deal” concerning the US’s involvement in the Danish territory.
The threat had prompted widespread apprehension; criticism from senior European politicians, who declared they “will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed”; and warnings from economists.
Trump cited a “very productive” meeting with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, but did not share many details about the “deal” he touted as a win for the US and its interests.
In an interview the same day with CNBC, Trump said that a deal would include Nato’s involvement on his sought-after missile defense system known as the “Golden Dome”, and well as “mineral rights” for the US.
Though official details are not being shared yet, the New York Times, citing unnamed senior officials, reported that military officers from member states of the transatlantic alliance discussed a compromise through which the US would be granted sovereignty over small pockets of Greenland.
How do Denmark and Greenland feel about this? Some lawmakers pushed back on Trump’s narrative.
In an interview with Sky News on Wednesday, a member of Denmark’s parliament, Sascha Faxe, said “there can’t be a deal without having Greenland as part of the negotiations”.
“So it’s not real negotiations,” Faxe added. “It’s two men who have had a conversation.”
Trump walks back Greenland tariffs threat, citing vague ‘deal’ over territory
The US will not hit Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland with tariffs of 10% from 1 February after all, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s recent obsession with Greenland, after the US toppled the regime of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, has rattled global officials in recent weeks. Trump claims that Denmark owes Greenland to the US because it helped defend the territory during the second world war, which has been debunked, and that the US needs the territory for national security purposes.
Doge improperly shared sensitive social security data
After months of denials, the Trump administration has acknowledged in a federal court filing that employees working for Elon Musk’s supposed cost-cutting operation accessed and improperly shared Americans’ sensitive social security data.
Netanyahu to join Trump ‘board of peace’ despite previous objections
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Wednesday that he had agreed to join a US-backed “board of peace” proposed by Donald Trump, despite his office having earlier criticised the composition of its executive committee.
Pregnant woman in medical distress being deported from US, attorney says
A 21-year-old woman who is eight months pregnant and in a state of medical distress is being deported from Atlanta on Wednesday afternoon, a human rights attorney said, pleading for emergency assistance for his client.
“We are trying to get her the medical attention she needs immediately,” said Anthony Enriquez, vice-president of US advocacy and litigation at the Kennedy Human Rights Center, whose client, Zharick Daniela Buitrago Ortiz, is on the verge of being sent to Colombia.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes asks Trump to commute prison sentence
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has asked Donald Trump to commute her sentence after she was convicted of defrauding investors in her now-defunct blood-testing startup that was once valued at $9bn, a notice on the US Department of Justice website showed.
ICE targets Somali communities in Maine in new Trump administration crackdown
The Trump administration has begun another targeted immigration crackdown, sending a surge of federal personnel to Maine, an ocean fishing state, in a plan dubbed by the government Operation Catch of the Day.
US supreme court appears skeptical of Trump’s bid to oust Lisa Cook
US supreme court justices appeared skeptical of Donald Trump’s case for firing a Federal Reserve governor on Wednesday, in a key test of the president’s power – and his administration’s battle to exert greater control over the US central bank.
US court allows ICE to arrest and pepper-spray peaceful protesters in Minnesota
In a victory for the Trump administration, the eighth US circuit court of appeals on Wednesday granted the justice department’s request for an administrative stay of a preliminary injunction issued last Friday by Judge Katherine Menendez.
That order would have prohibited ICE agents from retaliating against peaceful protesters, arresting or detaining people who are participating in peaceful protests, using pepper-spray or similar non-lethal munitions and crowd-dispersal tools, as well as stopping or detaining drivers without reasonable cause.
What else happened today:
A US judge temporarily blocked federal prosecutors on Wednesday from reviewing material seized when the FBI raided a Washington Post reporter’s home.
A former employee of the Department of Homeland Security who was fired after video circulated of him on a date criticizing the agency’s head, Kristi Noem, sued the department, alleging the termination violated his first amendment rights.
The California Republican party has asked the US supreme court to block a redistricting measure voters approved in November that would flip up to five House seats in Democrats’ favor.
Speaking of redistricting, New York must redraw its congressional map, a state judge ruled on Wednesday, handing Democrats another key opportunity to pick up another US House seat before this fall’s midterm elections.
The office of Gavin Newsom, the California governor, said his appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos was canceled under pressure from the Trump administration.
House Republicans advanced a resolution on Wednesday to hold former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, opening the prospect of the House using one of its most powerful punishments against a former president for the first time.
A vast winter storm is set to descend across much of the US starting on Friday, sweeping snow, ice and brutal cold across nearly 2,000 miles from the south-west to the east coast and affecting more than 200 million people.
Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum has defended the latest transfer of 37 Mexican cartel operatives to the US as a “sovereign decision”, as her government strives to alleviate pressure from the Trump administration to do more against drug-trafficking groups.
Catching up? Here’s what happened Tuesday 20 January
